1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gateway system, gateway system configuring method, and a gateway apparatus in an H.323 specification communication system, especially to the gateway system, it's configuring method, and a gateway apparatus which is capable of handling more gateways in one gatekeeper by dividing H.323 gatekeeper functions and mounting part of the gatekeeper functions, in each gateway apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Up to now, H.323 gateway systems have been used for relay between communication conforming to ITU-T recommendation H.323, which is a standard specification of a service quality non-guaranteed LAN and communication conforming to another standard different from the recommendation H.323 so as to perform protocol conversion. In an H.323 model, one zone is configured by one gatekeeper, and one or more endpoint(s) (gateway(s) or H323 terminal(s)). The gatekeeper performs address translation, access conversion control, bandwidth management, or the like, and controls the gateway(s). If a number of gateways in one zone increases, convergence of gatekeeper processing is avoided by providing a plurality of gatekeepers. Nevertheless, since a gateway can be registered in only one gatekeeper at the same time, gateways are separated into a plurality of zones constituted for every gatekeeper.